Serbia’s prosecutor’s office said Saturday it had asked police to gather evidence regarding allegations of fraud in recent elections, following an international outcry over alleged irregularities. Serbia held parliamentary and local elections on December 17, in which President Aleksandar Vučić’s party declared a landslide victory.
But the election attracted widespread criticism after a team of international observers – including representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – denounced a series of “irregularities”, including ” vote buying” and “ballot stuffing”. Hundreds of people demonstrated daily in front of the Serbian electoral commission, several opposition MPs went on hunger strike to demand the annulment of the vote results and international condemnations poured in.
Cases of “electoral corruption” and “vote buying”
Germany called the alleged fraud “unacceptable” for a country hoping to join the European Union, the United States called on Belgrade to address the “concerns” of election observers, and the EU said “the Serbia’s electoral process requires tangible improvements and further reforms. On Saturday, Serbia’s prosecutor’s office said it had asked police to investigate several alleged irregularities so prosecutors could determine whether there was enough evidence to bring formal charges.
Numerous cases of alleged irregularities have been reported, including cases of “electoral corruption” and “vote buying”, the Belgrade prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “(We) have attached a video recording of two women talking about the alleged handing over of money by an unknown person (to get them) to vote,” the statement said. Other reported irregularities included falsified ballots found in ballot boxes in Belgrade, the capital, he added. The party of one of the MPs on hunger strike, Marinika Tepić of Serbia Against Violence, who has stopped eating since Monday, declared that her health was “in danger” and that she should receive daily infusions.
“Despite all this, she is not giving up and remains determined to fight to the end to overturn the elections that were brutally stolen,” Tepić’s Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement. Despite the torrent of criticism, the Serbian president remained steadfast. He said this week that “there is no doubt that we will defend the will of the people.”